Nate's Welcome Home Meal

Good evening, readers! I am ecstatic to report that Nate is safe and sound here in Raleigh (he's currently trying to locate his cat, Pickles for forced snuggles). He arrived yesterday around 1:00 in the afternoon, much to my surprise. I wasn't expecting him until closer to 4:00 PM and as such I was in all my pajama'd glory baking and cooking away.

After a 30 hour drive from New Mexico to our second home, I decided Nate and Papa Hart could use some home cooking. Additionally, I've never cooked for my father-in-law and decided it was a good opportunity to prove to him his son is well fed. I challenged myself with this meal by making 4 dishes I've never made before: lasagna, rosemary focaccia bread, homemade tomato sauce, spiced cupcakes with cream cheese icing.

Let's get to it, shall we?!

I decided to bake the cupcakes on Friday night to give them plenty of time to cool.

Lager Spiced Cupcakes

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
2 Eggs
1 C brown sugar
4 oz buttermilk (or 1 C skim milk mixed with 2 Tbsp while vinegar)
6 oz lager beer (I used a Fosters)
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 C flour
1 Tsp baking soda
1 Tsp salt
1 Tsp cinnamon
1 Tsp ground coriander
1/2 Tsp ground ginger
1/2 Tsp cardamom
1/2 C spiced rum

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Add in milk, beer and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices. With your mixer on low, gradually add in the dry ingredients in batches until the batter is totally mixed.

Line a standard muffin tin with cupcake liners and fill each liner with 1/4 C of batter. Bake cakes for 20 minutes, rotating tray halfway through. Remove the cooked cakes to a wire rack. While the cakes are still warm, brush each cake with spiced rum and repeat with remaining batter. I was able to get 18 cakes using my 1/4 C ice cream scoop.

The cakes themselves resemble the texture of a carrot cake - meaning slightly sponge-y and dense but in the best way. My house smelled like fall and it was excellent! By the way, is anyone else ready for summer to be over? Cozy sweaters, boots, pumpkin spice EVERYTHING. 

Cream Cheese Icing

4 oz cream cheese, softened
4 oz unsalted butter, softened
1-2 C confectioners sugar
1 Tsp vanilla extract

In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine all ingredients until stiff peaks form. I don't like my cream cheese frosting to be overly sweet, I like to taste the slightly tangy cream cheese flavor so I only used 1 C of confectioners sugar but this is just personal preference.

Homemade Tomato Sauce

1/2 C olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 32 oz cans crushed tomatoes
2 dried bay leaves
4 Tbsp unsalted butter (optional)

I followed Giada De Laurentiis' recipe because who better to teach me how to make tomato sauce than a woman who randomly throws in Italian accents whilst narrating what she's doing?

In a large dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium-high heat and saute onion and garlic until soft and translucent, roughly 10 minutes.

Add in the celery and carrots, salt and pepper and cook for about 10 minutes. Drop the heat to low and add in the cans of tomato and bay leaves. Simmer for 1 hour.

After the hour is up, remove the bay leaves and check the seasonings. If the sauce is too acidic, add in the unsalted butter 1 Tbsp at a time until the sauce is balanced.

In a blender or food processor, puree 1-2 C of sauce at a time until smooth. I used my blender for this because I didn't feel like moving my food processor from it's designated spot on top of my refrigerator. I used a coffee mug to transfer the sauce to the blender (a trick I learned while watching Rachel Ray's talk show this week) and then poured the pureed sauce into 2 mason jars for storage. The sauce will keep in the freezer up to 6 months!

I highly recommend making your own tomato sauce at least once in your life! It's definitely worth it! I'm not going to lie to you, it's a pain in the ass and takes a chunk of time to prepare but you will be rewarded with a velvety and flavorful sauce that you prepared yourself.

Rosemary Focaccia Bread

1 Tsp active dry yeast
1 Tsp sugar
1/2 C warm water
1 Tbsp olive oil, plus more for brushing
1 Tbsp dried rosemary
1/4 Tsp salt
1 1/4 C flour
1/4 Tbsp kosher salt
Fresh cracked pepper

In a liquid measuring cup, microwave 1/2 C water for 30 minutes. Stir in 1 Tsp active dry yeast and 1 Tsp sugar and let sit for 5 minutes or until foamy. In your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, combine oil, rosemary, salt, flour and yeast mixture. Mix until a dough ball forms around the dough hook.

On a floured surface, knead dough for 5 minutes. Coat a medium-sized bowl with olive oil, place dough inside, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until the dough ball has doubled in size.

After the hour, remove the dough from the ball, knead for an additional minute and form into a loaf. Place loaf on a parchment paper or silicone mat lined baking sheet and allow to rise uncovered for an additional 1-2 hours or until the loaf has doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake the loaf for 20 minutes. Halfway through the baking, remove the bread, brush with olive oil and rotate pan.

The focaccia had the perfect crunchy exterior and light and airy interior with the rosemary flavor shining through. It was delicious and perfect for soaking up all the great lasagna sauce and homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

Spinach Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

4 C spinach
6 large strawberries, sliced into rounds
1/2 log goat cheese, cut into chunks
1/2 C slivered almonds
1/2 C Balsamic Vinaigrette (recipe below)

In a large salad bowl, toss all ingredients to combine.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/4 C balsamic vinigar
1/2 C olive oil
1/2 Tsp salt
Fresh cracked black pepper
1 Tsp Herbs de Provence

Combine all ingredients in a squeeze bottle and taste check. Adjust seasonings accordingly.

Now for the piece de resistance: the lasagna.

Once again, this was adapted from Giada because the girl knows her stuff.

Classic Italian Lasagna

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb ground turkey
3 oz baby portabello mushrooms, sliced and stems removed
Bechamel Sauce (recipe to follow)
1 lb lasagna sheets, prepared
15 oz whole milk ricotta cheese
2 eggs, beaten
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 packages frozen spinach, thawed and dried
3 C shredded mozzarella
1/2 C shredded Parmesan cheese

Cook turkey over medium heat until no longer pink and drain off excess fat. Allow to cool completely. Set aside.

Prepare lasagna sheets according to package instructions and allow to cool completely. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine ricotta cheese, eggs and seasoning. Set aside.

Thaw spinach and drain excess liquid. *Note: if I make this again, I'm using fresh spinach. The frozen spinach had an unpleasant stringy quality and the flavor tasted like...freezer. I would saute the spinach with a clove of garlic.

Preheat oven to 375.

Pour 3 C of bechamel sauce in the bottom of a 9X13 casserole dish. Cover bechamel with overlapped pasta sheets. Add all the spinach in a single layer. Top with all the ricotta mixture. Make another layer of overlapping lasagna sheets. Next place all the turkey on HALF of the lasagna. As some of you may recall, I am a vegetarian, therefore I made half of the lasagna with a layer of fresh mushrooms.

Cover with another layer of overlapping lasagna sheets and another 3 C of bechamel sauce. Top with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place casserole dish on prepared baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes uncovered. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes.

The lasagna was cheesy, hearty and oh-so-delicious. As I said, my only change would be to use fresh spinach in place of frozen.

Bechamel Sauce

5 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 C all purpose flour
4 C whole milk
Pinch nutmeg
2 C tomato sauce

In a large pot over medium heat, melt the butter completely. Whisk in the flour and gradually pour in the milk, whisking constantly until smooth. Simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes until thick. The sauce should be thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Remove from heat and whisk in nutmeg and tomato sauce until combine. Allow to cool completely before use.

This meal was decadent, hearty and (hopefully) reminded Nate what he was missing while he was gone for the last 3 months. It also paired well with the Cabernet Sauvignon that Papa Hart brought over.

Stay tuned for more fantastic recipes!